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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



splitting it, and, if a bit of wood remains 

 in the eye, there leave it. The grand thing 

 is to unite the edges of the two barks at 

 the top cut where the union will take 

 place, and to have the shield pressed close 

 to the wood in the incision on the stock, a 

 result to be obtained only by binding it 

 carefully. Another and still more impor- 

 tant point is, not to mind the apparent 

 loss of the eye when the shield ha3 been 

 dexterously separated. Immediately after 

 flowering the buds are not always so pro- 

 minent that you can be sure you have it 

 safe after removing the wood, but be as- 

 sured it it there. Insert the bud, tie such 

 a bud not extra tight, but with an extra 

 thickness of cotton-wool to prevent exhaus- 

 tion by evaporation, and it will come as 

 certainly as the plumpest. Nevertheless, 

 dismissing these exceptional cases, I prefer 

 a visible bud from the growth of the sea- 

 son, and the removal of the wood clean 

 and complete. Example — Geant des Ba- 

 tailles, GeneralJacqueminot, Auguste Mie, 

 Jules de Margottin, William Griffiths, 

 Madame Vidot, Madame Louise Odier 

 budded at the end of June, 1859, on short 

 stout briars, wild wood all got rid of 

 before winter, moved from nursery quar- 

 ters on the 15th of May this year, now 

 with fair-sized heads, a few blooms pro- 

 duced, and nipped off to give them a fair 

 chance of blooming as much as they please 

 this autumn. Mind, they were only moved 

 at such a time to fill up blanks caused by 

 the severe winter, and would have been 

 lost unless shaded with wet mats, except 

 in such a tremendously wet season. As it 

 was, they were only shaded for two or three 

 days, and are now as safe as old established 

 plants. " Don't do as I do ; do as I tell 

 you." Another advantage in budding is 

 its certainty. What a perplexing task it is 

 to get plants of Rosa alba on their own 

 roots ; even Aimee Yibert and Ophirie 

 puzzle the amateur propagators ; but most 

 of the perpetuals come from cuttings as 

 readily as calceolarias and by much the 

 same sort of treatment. The rose that re- 

 fuses to make roots for itself must be 

 worked, and the fashion of working must 

 be in accordance with the circumstances of 

 the cultivator and the habit of the variety 

 in hand. Just now, look over your briars, 

 and you will probably see lots of smart 

 green upright suckers ; or you may have 

 kept down suckers according to the routine 

 prescribed in the books. I shall call you a 

 wise man if you let all the best of the suckers 

 rise, and I can tell you that for the past 

 three years, being a little out of reach of 

 good stocks from the hedges, I grow my 



own stocks from suckers on the ground. 

 Here is a nice three-feet stem, with at least 

 two shoots at top in good positions to take 

 buds. Remove all the other shoots by a 

 clean cut, and shorten in those to be bud- 

 ded, not to cripple them, but so that you 

 can get along the rows conveniently, and 

 work at ease. There is also one stout 

 green sucker, which, in the ordinary way 

 on the routine taught in books, must grow 

 another year to form hard wood and side- 

 shoots for budding. Work the two shoots 

 at top with a bud on each, and let it be 

 your fixed and unalterable law, on the 

 fashion of the Medes and Persians, to form 

 a head from one bud only. At the nur- 

 series they enter two buds, to make assur- 

 ance doubly sure. You do the same. At 

 the nurseries they let both buds start, to 

 get a head quick that will bear a price ; but 

 don't you do that. Whichever takes the 

 lead keep, and cut the other clean away ; 

 one bud will ultimately form a better head 

 than two, though the first season the two 

 might give you the most to look at. It is 

 important to work them early, so as to get 

 a good start the same season, and have the 

 wood well ripened at its close, and if 

 towards the middle of October the new 

 shoot is still growing away, and you see 

 reason to believe it will be soft when the 

 frost comes, nip out the point for the last 

 time, and then take your largest digging- 

 fork, thrust it in nine inches or so from 

 the collar of the briar, and give it a gentle 

 heave, not to shake it much, but enough to 

 check it, and the wood of that new shoot 

 will ripen in a fortnight. 



Now about these suckers. Run your 

 eye along them from head to foot. Say 

 the sucker is three feet high ; at two feet 

 from the ground the young wood is in just 

 the same state of greenness and ripeness as 

 the base of the summer shoot, which you 

 have just budded on the top of the stock. 

 Instead of waiting till next season, bud it 

 there at once just under one of the leaf- 

 rings, "gun-barrel" fashion, and six inches 

 higher up on the opposite side, also under 

 a leaf-ring, and with the top of the shield 

 on the line of the leaf-ring, enter another 

 bud, and you will have a fine plant to 

 bloom next season. I never had faith in 

 this gun-barrel working until driven to it 

 this time three years on receiving from a 

 friend some scions of roses I wanted, at 

 the very moment when every one of my 

 proper briars were weighted with as many 

 as they could carry. Thinks I, I've read 

 a good deal for and against this plan, now 

 I'll try it on the little rejected green briars 

 and the suckers of the strong ones. They 



